St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-14
STRAY SUNBEAMS.

BILLY FLORENCE the actor, is fond of a prac-
teal joke. Last year Mr. FLORENCE visited
England and was the guest of JOHN Holdings
HEAD, the proprietor of the Gayety theater in
London. Mr.. HoLLINGsHEAD has a magnifi-
cent suburban place with large grounds and
a great variety of trees. Mr. HoLLINGsHEAD's
pride is a cluster of plum trees which bear
remarkably large fruit, and he never tired of
inviting Mr.. FLORENCE out into the garden to
eat plums. During the past summer Mr.
HoLLINGsHEAD made a flying visit to this
country and dropped in to spend a day with
Mr.. FLORENCE. While he owns a fine resi-
dence, like all New Workers, Mr.. FLORENCE
has very little ground attached to his dwell
ing. His entire arbor outfit consists of one
linden tree in the back yard. When he re-
ceived message in the morning announcing
that his friend HoLLINGsHBAD would be up to
take dinner with him Mr.. FLORENCE called
up his servant man and directed him to go
Immediately to the market and buy 200 egg
plants. The man did as directed and
when he returned Mr.. FLORENCE had
him to take the egg plants out and fasten
them to the linden tree. That evening,
after dinner was over and the post prandial
cigars had been enjoyed Mr.. FLORENCE
turned to his guest and said: "JOhn, when I
was at your house i'll London remember you
treated me to some very fine plums Now, if
you will accompany me to my garden in the
rear of the house think can show YOU an
American plum tree that will knock the
spots off of anything that grows in England
The plnms are not ripe yet, but they are on
the tree and you can see what they will be
when they do get ripe" In the soft light of
the new moon the Englishman was not able
to detect the deception, and came back into
tI,o bA,, ,fta
ing to Mrs. FLORENCE that America was the
most wonderful country IN the world. Be
fore he left he extracted promise from Mr.
FLORENCE to send him the seed of some of
those mammoth plums.
***
81 have knocked around the world q good
deal in my time, but this GLOBE building sur
passes everything in the way of newspaper
offices that my eye has yet fallen on,'' re-
marked Gov. PINTO PERKINS as he dropped
into the GLOBE editorial rooms yesterday af-
ternoon. Il have just been up to the tower,
and it reminds me of the time when I was
consul general to Switzerland and used to
walk to the top of Mount Blanc every morn
ing before breakfast. The view is Just as fine.
The only difference is that they don't use ele-
vators in Switzerland, and 1 am glad they
DON'T
Il hear that HENRY WILLARD is coming back
to be president of the Northern Pacific said
the old citizen who dropped around last
evening for Il short chat. 'sWell, if that is SO
then there is poetry in justice. / can't think
of anything with finer touch of poetic JUS
tlce to it than the restoration of WILLARD
after all these years Of trouble that the poor
fellow has endured. The Northern Pacific is
HENRY WIZARDS legitimate offspring, and if
he now comes back to the head of it the
incident will furnish the foundation for a
good romance to be called the 'Prodigal
Fathers Return
Last night would have been a good time
to have taken a census. There was catar-
act of humanity on the streets and any sort
of a count would have brought the popula-
ton up to quarter of a million. The gorge
BUSINESS of the illumination was almost
enough to bring the dead to life.
*s*
'There is one thing indicative of st. Paul
enterprise" remarked a prominent visitor
last night, land that is the disposition of ST.
Paul people to excel themselves. 1 have been
here on different occasions when you had
your carnivals and your fairs, and each time
you surpass the former occasion in the effect
and brilliancy of your displays. I thought
your Nominations last carnival season were
the finest the world ever saw. But this il
Elimination tonight is away ahead of that.
1 wonder if there is any limit to ST. Paul en-
terprise?'